


Trick or Treat

by LindsayBay



Category: The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Daryl Dixon and Merle Dixon are Young, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Halloween, Trick or Treating, Young Daryl Dixon, Young Merle Dixon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-04
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-29 06:59:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12625653
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LindsayBay/pseuds/LindsayBay
Summary: Young Merle and Daryl Dixon, Halloween





	Trick or Treat

Merle pulled the shoebox out from under his bed. His stash. The safety scissors that had ‘fallen’ into his jeans pocket. The construction paper that he’d put under his shirt one day during art class. Crayons swiped from some kid’s 64-count Crayola box a few years back. Scotch tape from a teacher’s desk. Merle sat on the floor and got to work. He was no artist, but the masks he made were… adequate. One dog mask, one cat mask. Halloween was the one night a year when people happily gave things away, and Merle never missed out on it. Unless he was in juvie.

“Daryl, put that brown sweatshirt on and put up the hood.” Merle fastened the cat mask over his brother’s face. “Now, be careful with that so it don’t get wrecked. People get stingy with the candy if ya don’t have a costume.” He put on the dog mask and they were ready to go.

The other kids had store-bought costumes with molded celluloid masks and those plastic jack-o-lantern candy buckets. Merle and Daryl just had their home-made masks and pillowcases. Despite the hoods and masks, everyone knew who they were. The Dixon boys. Dead momma, mean-ass drunk daddy, juvenile delinquent Merle.

First, Merle made a bee-line to Mrs. Fredrickson’s house. Everyone knew that she ran out of her home-made popcorn balls fast. “Trick or treat!”

Mrs. Fredrickson smiled as she dropped the wax-paper-wrapped treats into their pillow cases. “Bless you two. I’m so sorry about your momma. I pray for you.”

“I think she gave me two,” Daryl said in awe as they trotted away.

“She’s a nice lady. Just remember, they ain’t all nice.”

The second house they stopped at, a man gave Merle a dirty look. “You’re getting too big for this.” He very pointedly only gave Daryl a treat. “That house is goin’ on my list,” Merle muttered as they walked away.

They accumulated Tootsie Rolls and home-made taffy in wax-paper twists and pennies and apples and some of those god-awful butterscotch candies. The dentist gave out toothbrushes. The Baptist minister handed out Jack Chick tracts decrying Halloween. Several more houses only gave Daryl treats. At one house, a woman claimed to have just run out, even though Merle could see the outlines of Tootsie Pops through the Tupperware bowl she was holding. “I have a new number one on my list,” he told Daryl.

The two boys were walking down a dark stretch of road when three bigger boys in masks ran out of a vacant lot and surrounded them. “Nice costumes, dicks! I mean Dixons. What are you supposed to be, white trash? Nah, that’s what you are every day,” one of them mocked. He made a grab for Daryl’s pillowcase and Merle punched him in the stomach, hard enough to knock the wind out of him.

The other two jumped Merle. Daryl leapt onto the back of one of them. Those three boys may have been bigger, but they were no match for sheer Dixon orneryness. They ran off into the dark with their bloodied noses and split lips. “Well, we’re all done trick or treating,” Merle said. He picked up the tattered remains of their masks. “No costumes. Dammit, Daryl, don’t start cryin’!”

“I wuh-was havin’ fuh-fun and they wrecked it!” Daryl sniffled and rubbed his eyes.

“Yeah, well, that’s life. Get used to it.” Merle spotted something. “Hey, Daryl, what’s that there?”

It was a plastic jack-o-lantern on its side, spilling out a pile of treats. One of the boys who’d jumped them must have dropped it. “Look at that! Another one of them popcorn balls!”

Daryl’s tears dried instantly as he knelt down and stuffed all the treats back into the bucket. As they walked toward home, he swung the jack-o-lantern jauntily.

Back at the Dixon trailer, Merle got ready for his second excursion of the night. Paper bags. Dog crap from the back yard. His daddy’s lighter. Merle grinned. It was time for tricks.


End file.
